Jeremiah 9 - English Bible for the Deaf (EBD19D) (2024)

₁I wish my head was full of water

and my eyes were fountains full of tears.

Then I would have cried every day and night

for my people who have died in war.

₂I wish that someone would give me

a place to stay in the desert.

Then I would go there, far away from my people,

because all of them are serving_idols,

and all of them are unfaithful to the Lord.

‘They hurt people with the things they say,

and their words are like arrows from a bow.

They are false in the land where they live,

and they don't serve their God.

They keep on doing more and more bad things,

and they live as if they don't know Me.

₄They must be careful of each other.

They can not believe each other

because everyone cheats and

says bad things about others.

₅All of them are false,

and they say things to each other that are not_true.

They have learned to keep on lying,

and they can not stop doing wrong.

₆They keep on oppressing and deceiving people,

and they do not want to know Me.’

‘Because they do all of this,

I will punish them.

It will be like someone

who puts metal into fire to melt.

I have to do this to my people.

There is nothing else that I can do.

₈The words they say are

like arrows that kill people.

They say they want peace

with other people, but they are false,

and they are just waiting for the right time

to make them suffer.

₉That is why I have to punish them.

I must punish people who do bad things like that.’

₁₀I, Jeremiah, will cry

to the mountains and in the fields.

I will mourn and sing a lamentation,

because the mountains and the fields are destroyed.

No one is living there, no sheep or goats,

and all the birds and the wild animals are gone.

₁₁The Lord says: ‘I will destroy Jerusalem.

It will be only heaps of stones,

and foxes will live there.

I will take all the people away

from the towns and cities of Judah,

and no one will live there.’

₁₂I, Jeremiah, asked: ‘Is there anyone

who is wise enough to understand this?

Has the Lord talked to anyone

and explained it to him?

Is there anyone who can tell us why this has happened?

Why did the Lord destroy this land?

Why did it become a desert where no people go?’

₁₃And the Lord said to me: ‘This has happened

because the people of Judah and Jerusalem

did not do what I wanted

and because they did not listen to Me.

They did not live as I wanted them to.

₁₄They were stubborn,

and lived as they themselves wanted to.

They served the Baals

as their forefathers had taught them.’

‘Because these people did this,

I will make them suffer and die.

It will be like people who have to eat

bitter food and drink poisonous water.

₁₆I will chase them away to go

and live among other nations,

people that they and their forefathers

do not know.

I will send enemies to kill them

until they have all died.’

‘Call the women who are paid to cry.

Let the women come who know how to mourn.’

‘The women must come quickly.

They must come and mourn for us

so that our eyes will also be full of tears,

and so that we can cry with them.

₁₉We hear the people crying in Zion.

They say: “The enemies have chased us away,

and we have lost everything.

We have to go out of our land,

because they have destroyed our homes.”

₂₀But women, you must listen

to what the Lord says.

You must teach your daughters to mourn

and to sing a lament.

₂₁Because there is disease in the city

and death is coming through our windows.

Our children and our young people

are dying in the streets

and on the market places.’

₂₂You must tell them what the Lord says.

He says: ‘The bodies of the people

will fall onto the ground like dung,

or like heads_of_wheat falling down

when someone cuts it off

but there is no one to pick it up.’

‘People who are wise must not boast

about their wisdom,

people who are strong

must not boast about their power,

and people who are rich

must not boast about their money

and what they have.

₂₄But if anyone wants to boast,

then he must boast about this:

He must boast because he knows Me,

the Lord, and because he knows

that I do what I have promised.

I do what is right and I am good

to all the people in the world.

Yes, this is what I like doing.’